UFC Hall-of-Famer Michael Bisping comments on Luke Rockhold’s second consecutive knockout loss at UFC 239.
Michael Bisping and Luke Rockhold are known bitter rivals from when the vied for the UFC’s undisputed middleweight title. Each fighter holds a win over the other, with “The Count” avenging his loss to become the 185-pound in 2016.
Bisping has since retired and had recently been inducted into the UFC Hall-of-Fame while Rockhold made his light heavyweight debut at UFC 239 against Jan Blachowicz. It did not end well for the former champion, suffering a second-round knockout loss and a broken jaw to boot.
During a recent episode of his Believe You Me podcast, Bisping sympathized with his former rival.
“The amount of messages that people have sent me, because everyone seems to think that I’m gonna take pleasure in seeing Luke knocked out like that, and it’s the opposite,” Bisping said (transcript via BJPenn.com). “I really feel for the guy. I do. I feel bad for him. It’s a real shame.
“Not only did he get his jaw broke, but he’s now been knocked out cold, viciously, in three of his last four fights.”
Bisping, however, isn’t too optimistic that Rockhold will be able to come back from his second consecutive knockout loss.
“And I can’t help but think that he’s done,” he said. “Now that doesn’t mean that he’s going to be. What he could do is come back and prove everybody wrong! Prove me wrong. That’s what I would’ve done. That’s kind of what I did. And, if he does that.. Then my god! He will have my respect forever!”
“But I gotta say, the writing on the wall. It looks like his career is over,” he continued. “It is not only only the fact that A, he’s been knocked out three times out of his last four. It’s not only the fact that he’s got a broken jaw, and that’s going to take some time to heal back from.
“It’s also the fact that it’s one thing getting knocked out cold once and coming back from that. But when you’ve been knocked out cold three of your last four, I mean, that is some psychological demons to overcome.”
Bisping himself is no stranger to such stoppage defeats, his most infamous one being his second-round knockout loss to Dan Henderson at UFC 100 in 2009.